Carla Lopez
Carla Lopez or Lopez was a Spectrum 8 codebreaker. Appearance and Personality Lopez had long black hair and was in her mid thirties. She is described by Agent Blacker as looking "two and a quarter million dollars, always perfect". Blacker and most of the Spectrum team liked her, and it is assumed she liked them back. Lopez was a very thorough codebreaker and she covered her tracks well. No-one outside Spectrum knew she was a codebreaker: she told everyone she was a bookkeeper. Ruby believes she sought adventure and had got tired of sitting at her desk cracking codes. Life and Work Lopez was a Spectrum 8 codebreaker. She was working on the case codenamed "Fools' Gold". The case regarded a suspected plan to steal gold from the City Bank. Lopez was decoding the messages between the members of the "Fools' Gold Gang" when she worked out where a meeting between two memebers was going to take place: the Fountain Hotel. Lopez went to the Fountain Hotel - technically she wasn't allowed to do this and should have alerted a senior agent, as she was not a field agent - and spied on Madame Erhling, a woman in a veiled hat. Madame Erhling left a message (a blank piece of paper with the imprint of the writing from the previous page) for an accomplice, but Lopez intercepted it. The message showed a map of the City Bank basement and a reflected phrase: nAAlsi 2O6. Lopez took the paper with her on her mountain climbing vacation, hidden in her powder compact. While on vacation she realised that the message was reflected: the right way round the map was of the City Museum basement (a mirror image of the City Bank basement). The phrase "nAAlsi 2O6" was actually the formula for jadeite jade: NaAlSi2O6. This made her realise that the plan was to steal the Jade Buddha of Khotan, not the gold shipment. After she realised this, Lopez left a message for LB with another agent: "Tell the boss, I missed something first time around. Tell her, I saw it in the mirror and it all made sense". She couldn't leave a less cryptic message over an unsecured line. Lopez had booked herself on the next flight back to Twinford - cutting her vacation short by ten days - but before she could return to HQ she was killed in an avalanche. The avalanche was originally assumed to be coincidental, but the Count later reveals to Ruby that it was set off by dynamite. Lopez's climbing partner was never found. Possessions * Lopez had a "speedy" bike, which Ruby uses on one occasion * A box of her personal pssessions was kept in the office to be mailed back to her family. Among the items were: ** A silver metal water bottle ** Some sunscreen ** Some gloves ** A penknife ** A powder compact, which contains the secret message she intercepted at the Fountain Hotel. Category:Spectrum agents Category:Characters Category:Deceased Category:Look Into My Eyes